Goodbyes
by Silent Mage
Summary: I don't know how it came to this, but our self-hatred is all we have in common now. Everything else is dead and gone. AU


**A/N- **This story isn't going to be happy and fluffy, but there may be some sweet moments and some laughs, 'cause we all know how resilient Dante is. :D There will definitely be violence, foul language, and probably some sexual situations. Please don't read this if any of that bothers you.

The game doesn't really go into much detail about what happened to Dante and Vergil before DMC 3, so this is simply my take on it. I've ignored the manga for the most part, so I guess this is A/U. They're both about to turn 18.

I never thought I'd actually write anything for this site (I kinda just came here to read XD), but it seems that the writing bug has finally caught me. And let me say, I have even more respect for writers now. It's much harder to get thoughts down into words than it seems. That said, please feel free to critique me. I can handle it. ;D

**Spilt Milk**

"Do you have the list?"

"Of course." Vergil pulls the piece of paper out of his pocket and gives it a quick look. "Milk and eggs."

"That's all she put down?"

"Yeah."

"Is she making a cake? Our birthday isn't 'till next month."

"Exactly."

We're both sure that Mom is up to something. We've noticed that she always seems to be one step ahead of everything and everyone, like the first, and the last, time we enrolled in an ordinary school. After attending for just a couple of weeks, we came home to find that she had packed our things and was ready to leave town. Vergil and I got pretty upset. That was the first time we'd had a chance to feel normal with other kids our age, but nothing we said could change her mind. Some time later we learned that the school had been attacked by demons.

Every once in a while when I think about Sparda, I get the feeling that this is why he chose to leave. Maybe he knew that her "gift" would be able to keep us safe. Maybe he didn't just leave on a whim and had some kind of greater goal in mind, but this line of thought makes me even more pissed at him. I try to avoid thinking about him at all, really.

Anyway, we don't question her now, but we have enough sense to get worried.

""What do you think it is?" I ask as we hurry down the dairy aisle.

"Who knows? Let's just grab this and go home. It'll take us about 20 minutes if we run." He grabs the eggs while I snag a gallon of milk without looking at the expiration date. For once, Vergil doesn't take the time to get on my case. I guess he's as keyed up as I am.

"You won't break the eggs on the way, big brother?" I try to calm him down with an insult.

The corners of his lips pull up slightly before he turns toward the registers. "I'm not a clumsy fool like you, brother." While I'm pleased that he's in a decent mood in this situation, I want to punch him for that jibe. Sadly, I think epic, demonic battles are frowned upon in grocery stores, and even a reckless guy like me doesn't want to stir up trouble _all_ the time.

We buy the milk and eggs and speed walk as quickly as possible without giving away what we were. The people in this town are already hostile to newcomers like us, and we don't want to do anything that will raise suspicion. We're tired of moving.

When we get to the edge of town, we check to make sure that no one's looking our way before breaking into a full out run. Trees blur past us as we dash into the woods toward our cottage, nestled comfortably between the trees and hills of the forest. After that attack on our school, Mom made sure that we lived far out from human towns and cities since the trouble that follows us would only put them in danger. It's how we've been living for years. I wonder how lonely Mom must be, not being able to make friends or ask for any help from her family…

There's no time to think right now. We slow down as we reach the clearing of our front lawn. As we approach the small house, I feel the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stand on end, as if electricity is charging the air around us. It's been a long time, but I recognize this quickly. Someone's used magic. I look to Vergil standing next to me. He nods, and I slowly open the door.

After taking a few steps through the threshold, realization hits me. I can't smell Mom. Her residual scent is on the sofa and small chairs, permeating through the dishcloths in the tiny kitchen, and saturating the carpet. But I can't smell the blood that pumps through her veins. I can't smell anything that says she's here. Nothing that says she's alive.

I panic and drop the milk jug on the floor. "Mom?" I call out as I stride toward her room. Before I can reach it, Vergil pulls me back and whispers fiercely in my ear.

"If you stopped for a second, you'd realize that someone else has been here." I take deep breaths and close my eyes. He's right, as usual. There's another scent, something tainted and impure. Demonic.

I open my eyes, and Vergil nods. We silently call our swords from our room and snatch them from the air as they fly toward us. Vergil shoulders past me and slides Yamato up with a thumb, ready to draw it and attack if necessary. He pushes open Mom's door to find… Nothing.

Her room is undisturbed, but the magic is much, much stronger here. Vergil steps to the center of the room while I stand near the door. I suck at magic, so I have no idea of what I should do next or how I could help him figure this out. He stands there for a few minutes, and I can feel his own power leaking out, testing the spell that's been cast in the room.

"It's a dimensional spell," he says as he turns to face me.

How the hell can he figure that out? "I see."

"No, you don't." I really, really hate it when he calls me out, and waiting for him to solve this problem irritates me even more. He unsheathes Yamato and ignores me when I tell him to fuck off. I lean back on the doorframe and glare while Yamato glows a bright, electric blue and Vergil says an incantation under his breath. He quickly turns Yamato's point down and stabs it into the floor. His lips are pressed into a thin line, something that only happens when he's irritated or angry. "Someone very talented did this, so I won't be able to dispel it. But I can take us through."

With that, I begin to feel the threads of magic twist and change around Yamato. The room fades as we slip into the other dimension and are engulfed in darkness.

"It's a void," I hear Vergil mumble, presumably to himself. I have no idea of what he's talking about, and I could care less at this point. Before I could tell him to stop acting like he's insane, the scent hits me full force.

It's Mom's blood, and it's _everywhere_.

I smell it coming at me from every direction. There's too much of it; too much is out in the open. My pulse goes out of control as I realize how much of it has been spilled. It's beneath me on the ground. It's splattered on the walls that I can't see. I can barely smell the bit still circulating in her body. I have to concentrate even harder to hear her heart.

Our eyes adjust, but not fast enough. With only the sound of a faint heartbeat to guide us, I drop Rebellion, and we both get on our hands and knees to grope around in the almost complete blackness.

I reach her first. "Mom?" My hand shakes as I reach out for her hand. It's cold. How can her hands be so cold?

Vergil's here by me now, and I can see much better. He kneels next to her, near her head, and with a tenderness I've never seen from him, strokes her cheek and runs a hand through her wet, bloody hair. She doesn't respond.

For some reason, everything has a bizarre sort of clarity at this moment. I can see her wounds; most of them are shallow and clean, as if someone circled around her and sliced from different angles. It would explain why blood had been cast on the walls of this strange room. There are so many cuts… And the one that is killing her is a stab wound through her stomach.

Whoever did this wanted to torture her. Someone wanted her to be afraid. They wanted mess with her mind by hurting her while she couldn't see. They wanted her to die alone and afraid in the darkness.

I rub her hand between my own. Maybe if I can warm them up, she'll be okay…

Her eyelids flutter open. She tries to speak, but it comes out as an incoherent sigh. Vergil realizes before I do that she isn't able to see in the dark like us. "Mom?" Putting a hand on her forehead, he leans closer to her face. His voice is so quiet and unsteady. "Mom? It's us, okay? We're here."

The clarity, that calmness I felt when I looked at her wounds, begins to evaporate.

Tears roll down my eyes, and the pain begins to settle inside me. "Mom." I choke on the word and hold her hand to my face. She moves her fingers, just enough to let me know that she's still here. That she knows I'm here with her. I hear her heart flutter for a little longer.

Then she's gone. It's sudden, and I barely comprehend it. I'm still holding her hand, and she was breathing just a moment ago, but I know that she's gone. Whatever made her move and laugh and feel has disappeared. I can't believe that she's gone, just like that…

My whole body feels numb and unresponsive. I can't breath or think.

Vergil senses it before I do. He reaches out through the darkness and grabs Yamato. I barely notice the sound of steel clanging against steel, and I can't find the strength to join him the fight against whoever did this. How does he keep it together? Why does he have to always be the one to take care of Mom and me?

But now it's just me.

I feel a new wave of sadness, but I can feel the anger surface along with it. I pick up Rebellion and stand awkwardly. I still can't seem to shake away the sensation of being outside of my body, so I grip my sword's hilt in an attempt to bring myself back to the present.

When I focus I hear a woman chanting somewhere further away. Before I can respond or figure out where she is Vergil appears next to me and grips my arm. He hastily mutters another enchantment and stabs Yamato into the ground. The blackness of the room we're in appears to shatter and break apart like a mirror that's been hit by rocks. The black shards fall away, and we're standing in Mom's room again.

"Fuck," Vergil hisses. I turn my head to stare at him. His grip on my arm tightens, and his eyes are darting around the room. His features are hard and stony, as if he's completely separated his body from whatever he's feeling inside.

He seems to remember that I'm here and looks at me. His eyes are cold and empty, but there's this strange gleam in them. I've never seen it before, and as I look at him, I realize that it scares me.

"Go grab Ebony and Ivory, clothes, and anything else that will be useful." He's speaking incredibly fast. My brain can't seem to keep up.

"But, what about…" I pause to try and think. "What about… Mom's body?"

He blinks. I guess he forgot that she's still in that weird dimension. He recovers quickly. "Just hurry up and do it! We don't have time!"

"But-" I start to speak, but then he shoves me through the bedroom door. The gleam is worse now. It's almost as if his eyes are glowing on their own.

"Stop talking and go!"

"You better do what he says," a new voice says from behind me. "He got you out before I could trap you both in the void forever." I freeze and watch Vergil's eyes widen with horror. It's the same woman I heard chanting earlier. I quickly spin around and step back to my brother.

I don't need Vergil to explain, because I can smell it for myself. She's a demon. No, she's a devil, like us. Her blood reeks of evil and power.

"So you know a bit of magic," she continues. "That's… interesting." Her unnaturally bright, blue eyes appraise us both. Her face is surrounded by hair that is as black as the room from which we escaped, and her skin is almost equally dark.

Her expression is stern, and her posture is perfect, predatory. This woman is a warrior, and I instinctively know that she's damn good at what she does.

Mom hadn't had a chance.

The woman takes a step toward us, and the movement is fluid and cat-like, as if she is preparing to spring. Light from outside flashes off of the strange black armor she's wearing. So that's why we didn't notice her in the void…

Vergil shoves me aside to stand in front of me. The gleam in his eye is visibly red now. I hadn't been imagining it.

The devil-woman stops walking and smiles at Vergil, and her white teeth flash brightly in contrast to her skin. "You look so much like Sparda," she says. Her voice is wistful, as if she and he had been close. "I really just wanted to see for myself. And even though I'm not the type of woman to get jealous or vengeful, I found much pleasure in killing that human."

My temper flares at what she says about Mom, but I also get stuck on her words. She was jealous? Wait… "You fucked our dad?" I blurt out, stunned. She looks past my brother to focus in on me, and her eyes are filled with the same look she just gave Vergil. It makes me extremely uncomfortable.

"And you have his foul mouth, I see." She grins again and slowly trails her gaze along my body. Now I feel not only uncomfortable, but also disgusted. The anger mingles along with the revulsion, and suddenly I want to puke.

Her grin fades, and her expression becomes impassive and serious once again. "Mundus won't let me keep you, and even I will admit that destroying you myself will not make me happy." She raises a hand. "So this will have to do. Goodbye, sons of Sparda."

She snaps her fingers, and our house explodes.

I see everything as if it is happening in slow motion. The fire is blazing through everything. The furniture, the walls, the pictures and the memories… But I can't move fast enough to save anything. In one instant I'm tortured more than I've ever been in my entire life.

I can feel the pain as the flames lick my skin. I know that I'll be fine, because I can't die so easily, but it still hurts. The hot air is burning my throat and lungs. My tee shirt has been reduced to ashes, and the fire is clinging to my jeans. I can see the skin on my arms start to bubble, so I close my eyes. I don't want to see what this is doing to me. That will only make the pain worse.

The flames burn out quickly when the force of the explosion blows through the roof and the windows. Those few seconds had felt like hours.

Exhausted, I fall to the floor of our decimated house. Everything hurts. My body. My mind. I didn't realize how much my emotions had been eating at me in the few minutes since Mom…

I don't let myself finish the thought. From my peripheral vision I can see red portals opening up around what's left of the house. I guess that devil knew we wouldn't die so easily too. I have to be strong. I have to fight.

But I can't move. My vision is hazy, and I think my mind is shutting down. I never would have guessed that any day could be worse than the day when Sparda left. I was only a child, but I can remember the hurt as if it happened just yesterday. Now today, I've lost my Mom, my home, and my brother, all in less than thirty minutes. My brother…

I can't see Vergil from where I'm lying. I don't know whether he survived the blast. I can only hope that he's alive, because he's all I have left. I won't be able to live if he and Mom take off on the same day.

Not that I'll live anyway. I can't move, much less pick up my sword. Maybe it won't be so bad then, if we both die. Neither of us will have to live the hurt or the sadness. I look and see the demons coming toward me with their mouths gaping and hungry, but there's no spirit left in me to care.

As I close my eyes and fade out of consciousness, I hear the demons' shrieks, mingling with a loud, angry roar.


End file.
